


Red Flashing Stars

by indevan



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Belonging, Found Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24709831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indevan/pseuds/indevan
Summary: Yuri wasn’t used to living above ground. That was a bit of a melodramatic statement, but he spent so long living in a basement apartment that he sometimes forgot that he had the ability to step outside without mounting stairs and then having to stand on the sidewalk, breathing other people’s trash
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	Red Flashing Stars

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second fic I wrote for [Rest Day Zine](https://twitter.com/restdayzine)! We're considering a rerun so check out/follow the twitter for updates!

Yuri wasn’t used to living above ground. That was a bit of a melodramatic statement, but he spent so long living in a basement apartment that he sometimes forgot that he had the ability to step outside without mounting stairs and then having to stand on the sidewalk, breathing other people’s trash.

The place he shared with his three friends had a weird layout, but he wouldn’t settle for anything else for them. The walls were made of colorful plaster rather than painted and random parts were tiled in swirling mosaics. There were two floors, technically, with an outdoor patio where they had dragged a couch out to on the first as well as the kitchen with a hallway and connecting the two, but nothing else. Yuri was currently perched on the couch, wrapped up in one of Balthus’s hoodies. The other man left them around the apartment and he had been cold so he thought nothing of pulling it on. The sleeves felt like wings and the hoodie was long enough for Yuri to pull over his knees.

He crouched in on himself and wished, not for the first time today, that he had a cigarette. He quit, though, and was going on four months without breathing in the fragrant smoke from his favorite cloves. It was something to be proud of if nothing else. Yuri drew some hair over his shoulder and leaned forward to rest his chin on his knees.

“Is that my hoodie?”

Balthus leaned casually in the doorway, his broad shoulders filling most of it. He had an open can of soda in one hand.

“It might be.”

“Looks good on you.” Balthus gave a wink.

He was always saying things like that, to most anyone, so Yuri never read too much into it. It wasn’t like he didn’t do the same, after all.

“Well, it was either going to go on me or stay on the floor.”

Balthus had the audacity to pretend to look chagrined.

“Oops!”

Yuri was used to this, too. Back at their old place, he and Balthus shared a room and he always left everything on the floor: dirty plates, empty liquor bottles, clothes, and snack wrappers. He had gotten a little better in their new place. It was an unspoken rule among the four of them that they wanted to keep this place and keep it as nice as they could. All four of them had been through it in some way, even if they didn’t know all the details. Balthus, to his merit, stopped leaving dirty plates and food everywhere. Clothes were a definite improvement.

He walked fully outside and plopped on the couch next to him. The couch was made of a waterproof material that kind of squeaked when you moved wrong, which was a warning sign whenever Balthus dropped himself without any fanfare. The displacement of weight made Yuri nearly topple from his perched position but he caught himself just in time. He settled himself and shuffled himself a bit closer to Balthus. A by-product of “going through it,” and the subsequent time spent in their old apartment made the four of them remarkably close. Even Yuri, who acknowledged that he tended to put up walls to keep people out found himself getting closer with his friends. He would sit with Balthus like this, leeching some of his body warmth (the man was like a walking furnace!). He would press his face next to Hapi’s when they were at a bakery and both trying to smell the same pastry at the same time. He would get close to Constance to do her eyeliner for her because she claimed that he did it the best.

“Nice night,” Blathus said.

It was just starting to get cold at night, which was a reprieve from how swelteringly hot the summer had been. Yuri overheated easily, but he didn’t do well in the cold either. Right now, the weather was nice, especially now with a little added heat from Balthus’s proximity. He hadn’t realized he was beginning to get cold until he sat next to him.

“A bit chilly.”

Balthus gave a laugh.

“You would say that. I feel like there’s no weather you actually like.”

Yuri considered his words.

“I like the fall,” he said. “Especially when it’s chilly but still sunny so you don’t get too cold and everything is kind of...golden.”

“Mm. Yeah. That’s nice. I like summer. I have an excuse to walk around without a shirt on.”

He snorted and said, “Didn’t think you needed one.”

Balthus gave a grin.

“Good point.”

He smacked his chest and then took a long pull from his can of soda. He swallowed and punctuated it with a loud belch. Yuri laughed.

“Good one.”

Hapi poked her head in, taking a bite from the sandwich in her hand as she did.

“I thought I heard B.”

She stepped fully through the open sliding door and made her way over to them. She was wearing a woven sweater with the hood up. Her red hair spilled out of the hood and over her shoulders, covering the pattern of greens and grays of her choice of apparel. She settled next to Yuri and took another bite of her sandwich. Balthus leaned over him to sniff at it.

“First this one wears my hoodie and now you’re eating my capicola!”

Hapi shrugged, clearly unbothered.

“You owe me anyway, B. I paid for your burrito the other night.”

He considered her words and then, in typical Balthus fashion, gave a shrug and a nod as if to say, “You got me there.” Hapi took another bite, not caring that she smeared mayonnaise on her nose. Yuri wrinkled his nose at the smell, but didn’t say anything. Knowing Hapi, she’d go “This smell, Yuri-bird?” and move the sandwich around his face.

“It’s finally cooling off,” Hapi observed. She licked some mayo off her finger and looked up. “It’d be cool to see the stars and not just pollution.”

Yuri pointed but with Balthus’s sweatshirt sleeves ending well beyond where his hands did, it just looked like he lifted a sleeve.

“There’s a star.”

“Yuri-bird, that’s an airplane.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You’re right. All those red, flashing stars, right?”

Balthus laughed. He reached up and, with his sleeved hand, tugged on the long ends of Balthus’s hair.

“Quiet, you.”

He tugged right back on Yuri’s, still grinning that big grin.

“No.”

Hapi rolled her eyes, but she didn’t move from her spot. Somewhere from upstairs he could hear a loud voice call out.

“Where is everyone?”

Yuri could picture Constance perfectly: coming out of her room after spending all day and the previous night awake doing whatever she did when she was alone, hair scraped back and wearing her My Melody slippers with the pale pink matching sweatshirt and shorts she wore to bed most nights.

“B?” Hapi prompted.

She put her sandwich in her mouth before putting both hands over her ears. Yuri followed suit. Balthus drew in a deep breath.

“CONSTANCE, WE’RE DOWN HERE!”

Yuri dropped his hands. It was strange sometimes, how accustomed to one another they had all come to one another. When Yuri first moved into the old apartment, he had zero desire at all to bond with his three other roommates. They were just people occupying rooms in the same, dismal basement apartment. Now, they were...what? A family? Sorta?

Constance appeared in the doorway, looking exactly as he pictured.

_ Nailed it. _

“Hapi, there’s mayo on your nose.”

Hapi crossed her eyes.

“So there is.” She stuck her tongue out and pointed it upwards to swipe at the tip of her nose.

Constance rolled her eyes and huffed in her typical way, but all of them knew she wasn’t serious. Mayo successfully removed, Hapi scooted over, squishing Yuri between her and Balthus. Constance squeezed next to her and then, thankfully, moved to sit on the arm of the couch. She let her legs rest on Hapi’s lap because somewhere along the line they became like this. Physically comfortable with one another.

“Oh, it’s nice out,” Constance said. She wiggled her shoulders contentedly.

Their patio felt private, just for them. There was a wooden fence around both it and the scrubby grass that framed it. The fence offered just enough privacy so their neighbors (who, Yuri noted, didn’t have a patio) couldn’t see them. Couldn’t hear them late at night, drinking and laughing and enjoying each other’s presence.

Shit, he was getting soft.

He didn’t know if he was ready to let down his walls, but he felt closer to the three of them than he had felt to anyone.

“Coco, when did you sleep last?” Hapi asked.

Idly, she plucked some meat out of her sandwich and held it out. Before she could stop herself, Constance leaned forward to eat it off her finger. She didn’t have to answer. Not really. All of them could see the way she swayed slightly from her precarious position on the arm on the couch. Could see the purple dents beneath her eyes.

“Oh, I can’t remember.”

Hapi exhaled.

“Coco…”

“Well, I--”

She sighed, knowing she would be unable to defend herself to the three of them. Part of this being a strange, misfit family meant looking out for one another’s health. Even back in their basement days (as Yuri called them) Balthus often physically carried him to his bed when he had been up for too long in a manic spiral.

Constance yawned and stretched her legs out, the bottoms of her slippers pressing against Yuri’s thigh. He reached over and flicked one of the bunny ears. My Melody, having no mouth, voiced no complaint, but Constance gave a weary little “hey!”

It was a rare moment where no one was really talking. Balthus was tapping his index finger on the side of his soda can. Hapi ate her sandwich. Constance was visibly fighting off wanting to sleep. Yuri looked at the three of them and smiled, despite it. He wiggled a bit in his squashed position, but didn’t make anyone move. He found he didn’t want to. Instead he looked up at the night sky, lit up by the city and full of pollution. Where planes were the only stars. He was no longer craving a cigarette.


End file.
